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Lessons from the Elizabethan age

In reaching her 10th decade, the Queen was leading the way for her subjects. But Bryan Appleyard finds a flipside to longevity and better health: we must utterly rethink the way we live our lives

Bryan Appleyard

June 12 2016, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

The birthday of the Queen was marked with an official Buckingham Palace photo of the monarch and 95-year-old Prince PhilipAnnie Leibovitz

Death is running away from us. For 50% of children born in the developed world today, it lies 105 years in the future. For all of us it is receding at an astonishing rate. In your fifties you can now expect to live into your nineties.

In this, if in little else, the Queen and Prince Philip are leading the way. She has just turned 90 and he 95. On Friday at St Paul’s, a service of thanksgiving marking the occasion was packed with an inspiring bunch of octo- and nonagenarians.

And with the Queen within a decade of writing herself a card, it is worth noting that 10 years ago one person was in charge of the Queen’s birthday messages to people on their…

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